About Mentor Duluth
What is Mentor Duluth
The mission of the Mentor Duluth collaborative is “to to assist eligible youth in their development into healthy and contributing members of society by offering mentoring programs that foster relationships with positive adult role models.” Mentor Duluth offers both a community-based and site-based mentoring program that matches youth ages 5-18 with caring adult mentors.
Our program is a collaboration of six youth serving agencies including the Duluth Area Family YMCA, the Boys & Girls Club of the Northland, Copeland Valley Youth Center, YWCA Duluth, Neighborhood Youth Services, and Proctor Hermantown Community Education.
The Mentor Duluth program evolved from the “Fatherless Boys Association,” formed in 1938 through the Duluth YMCA. In 1996, the Ordean Foundation conducted a city wide needs assessment an determined that positive adult role models was the number one need of area youth. The youth serving agencies cames together with the YMCA in the common goal of finding caring adults to become positive role models to children in our community.
Mentor Duluth is one of the top mentoring programs in the state. In 2003, our program was awarded the first ever Karen Kydd Angel of Mentoring award, given to the program that best exemplifies the high quality of mentoring best practices and success. We are very proud to have been honored with this award. Mentor Duluth is also a leader in providing support to other programs in Northern Minnesota. We are recognized nationally as a leader in program evaluation, conducting a 12 year longitudinal study on the effects of mentoring on children. We have found that the relationship mentors provide to children does make a difference. Children are more confident, make better decisions, have a stronger connection to adults and do better in school as a result of mentors in their lives.
In 2005, Mentor Duluth added Five Points, an academic mentoring component as a school or other site, to the program. In 2011, academic mentoring transitioned to a site-based mentoring model where mentoring services are delivered to youth directly through our collaborative sites.
Mentor Duluth is supported by the Ordean Foundation, United Way, City of Duluth Community Development Block Grant, the Northland Foundation, and Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation.
